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Recently, there was a headline on the front page of The Augusta Chronicle asking “is the grass greener” in Columbia County. My answer is a resounding yes except for one thing: the lack of street lights on major arterial roads in Columbia County.

I grew up on the Hill, now Summerville, and moved away for about 30 years. When I returned “home,” I moved to Columbia County because it was forward-looking and progressive.

That’s the message county commissioners are sending in the approval of an apartment complex that will allow a Lincoln, Neb., developer to bring in a 130-unit complex to the privately owned portion of Marshall Square.

But, you might ask, aren’t some of these the same commissioners who fought tooth and nail a few years ago to prevent changes that would allow other apartments in the central Evans development – so much that they settled a lawsuit by spending millions of taxpayer dollars to buy a chunk of the property?

One thing I have always noticed about politicians is this: for almost anyone in elective office, hypocrisy is like heroin. It’s so addictive that it’s nearly impossible to resist it.

I was reminded of that when I heard the news that Linda Schrenko, the former state school superintendent who had been behind bars since 2006, was being transferred to a halfway house as she prepared to finish her federal prison sentence for embezzlement later this year.

Schrenko is surely one of the most interesting people ever to streak across the political horizon in Georgia.

Obviously, Amazon.com considers itself big enough to ignore Georgia law and get away with it. Last year, the Legislature passed and Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law a bill that required companies like Amazon, who have affiliates in this state, to collect sales tax on purchases made in Georgia.

Untold numbers of hearts were heavy in December when the Marshall family decided it was time for Deborah Marshall, Columbia County’s longtime, beloved elections director to retire. Despite the fervent prayers and well-wishes of virtually everyone in the community, Marshall simply wasn’t able to return from surgery she underwent in April for a malignant brain tumor.

There are three possible reasons why Silda Dean wrote a letter saying she lied when she claimed to have been molested by Scott Dean, the former county commissioner and Harlem mayor who adopted the girl and four of her siblings from Guatemala:

• She was lying then, but now she’s telling the truth.

• She was telling the truth then, but she’s lying now because of pressure or persuasion.

• She was telling the truth then, but she’s lying now because she’s appointed herself as Dean’s personal pardons and paroles board and has decided a year in prison is enough punishment.

The mainstream media paid it little attention, but back in November the U.S. Supreme Court shocked many in the legal community by granting Liberty Counsel’s motion for a rehearing on its multi-pronged challenge to Obamacare. The High Court ordered the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear arguments. This is extremely rare and means, almost certainly, that Chief Justice Roberts will get another bite at the rotten apple – this time, with a whole new quiver of legal arrows.